Description
India’s economy contracted by a whopping 23.9% in the first quarter of the 2021 financial year, in what is the latest sign of the toll that the COVID-19 lockdown has taken on economic activity.According to data released by the statistics ministry on Monday evening, real GDP for the April-June 2021 quarter fell by 23.9% in comparison to the same quarter a year ago.By most estimates, this is the first time that the Indian economy has seen a contraction in at least four decades and is the first GDP decline since the country began publishing quarterly growth figures in 1996.India went into a full lockdown towards the end of March 2020, with the supply of all non-essential goods and services screeching to a near halt for most of April 2020 and May 2020.Estimates put out by Bloomberg had predicted GDP for Q1 to slump by 19.2%, although other economists had pegged the fall slightly higher.In the January-March quarter of this year, the economy had grown by 3.1% on a year-on-year – the lowest rate in over 17 years – and by 5.2% in the June quarter of 2019-20.Like our work? Click here to support The Wire: https://thewire.in/supportThe founding premise of The Wire is this: if good journalism is to survive and thrive, it can only do so by being both editorially and financially independent. This means relying principally on contributions from readers and concerned citizens who have no interest other than to sustain a space for quality journalism. As a publication, The Wire will be firmly committed to the public interest and democratic values.We publish in four different languages!For English, visit www.thewire.infor Hindi: http://thewirehindi.com/for Urdu: http://thewireurdu.comfor Marathi: https://marathi.thewire.inIf you are a young writer or a creator, you can submit articles, essays, photos, poetry – anything that’s straight out of your imagination – to LiveWire, The Wire’s portal for the young, by the young. https://livewire.thewire.in/You can also follow The Wire’s social media platforms and engage with us.Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/TheWire/https://www.facebook.com/TheWireHindi/https://www.facebook.com/TheWireUrdu/https://www.facebook.com/TheWireMarathi/Twitterhttps://twitter.com/thewire_inhttps://twitter.com/thewirehindihttps://twitter.com/TheWireUrduhttps://twitter.com/TheWireMarathihttps://twitter.com/livewireInstagramhttps://www.instagram.com/thewirein/https://www.instagram.com/livewirein/Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button to never miss a video from The Wire!